America: Paying more for less

[Snowhog]

When it comes to Internet speeds for the 'Average American", we get screwed.

[NickStone]

It's not reserved to you Americans. It's the same over here in the UK

[vinnywright]

http://oti.newamerica.net/publicatio...nectivity_2013

screwed ,,,,,,yup

VINNY

[whatthefunk]

Its not just the internet.

[GreyGeek]

Its not just the internet.

That's for sure. Toward the end of the summer my wife started noticing that our daily walks were becoming increasingly more tiring. She made an appointment in October to see her cardiologist (she had a bovine mitral valve installed in 2006) but started feeling better and canceled it. By mid December her exhaustion had come back with a vengeance. Our apartment is over our garage and is accessed by 19 steps leading from the door beside the garage door. They had given her no problems when we moved here. Now, she was having to stop half way up and catch her breath. When she got to the top she'd have to set down for five minutes to recover. On the 3rd of January her cardiologist scheduled an echo cardiogram. Based on it he scheduled a CT scan. Humana refused the CT scan, which costs $10K, so a Nuclear Stress Test was scheduled, which cost $5K. Neither test revealed the problem, which was a suspected valve malfunction, so a TransEsophogeal Cardiogram (TEE) was done. I don't know what its price is yet, but the results identified that her mitral valve had thickened and was opening only a fraction of what it should. This was producing back pressures of 22 mmHg (when it should be 0 mmHg) and was causing damage to her Tricuspid valve, besides making it impossible to do anything which elevates the heart rate. During her first heart operation in 2006 she had suffered a stroke and lost her speech and control of the right half of her body, but both returned to near normal within a week. Her cardiologist needs to know if there are areas of her brain that a second heart operation might negatively impact and if there are scars and/or lesions around her heart that he will have to be aware of when he does the valve replacement. So, he scheduled two more CT scans, one for her head and one for her thoracic cavity. will Humana approve them or let the cardiologist operate in the dark? BTW, Humana's CEO made 17 million last year. That's 1,700 full priced CT scans. Oh, their excuse for not approving the CT scan and forcing the useless ECG and NST? Their "brilliant" doctor claimed she wasn't fat enough to warrant a CT and that an ECG would be sufficient. Having approved three tests which combined cost about as much as a CT but don't give a fraction of the information, two more CT scans are needed. That's nearly $30K in test costs. An original CT and one additional one for the head would have cost $20K. In trying to save profits the ignorant Humana doctor nicked Humana for an additional $10K, assuming they approve the two addition CT scans. With the two CT scans they give her a 90% chance of survival but without the scans they can't say.

In 1972 Dick Halderman walked into Pres Nixon's oval office with an "idea" -- Health Maintenance Organizations - a.k.a. HMO's. Actually it was the health insurance companies idea. Nixon thought it was great. Break people up into groups based on their health and pay for health maintenance instead of health "restoration". You know the results. Before HMOs, insurance rates were determined by dividing the total medical costs by the number of people covered, adding a percentage for book keeping and profit, and setting the same rates for EVERYONE. The insurance paid for everything ... period. No exclusions. In 1961, in the final month of my BC&BS policy, as a freshman in college, I had an emergency appendectomy. Seven days in the hospital plus surgery, surgeon and GP charges came to $750.50. Everything was paid. It was a new, experimental "watch pocket" appendectomy. Today, it can cost between $10K - $20K PLUS doctor charges. Not everybody gets the same level of treatment and not everybody pays. In 2006 her cardiologist was late for her appointment. He was on call in the ER the previous night. An illegal alien walked into the emergency room complaining of heart problems. Eight hours later the man walked out with several hundred dollars worth of medicines, following ECG and other tests, and never left his name or paid a dime. Now, nine years later, with illegals flooding across open borders, the problem is much worse. Andthe insurance companies, administering federal medicare payments for a variable fee, are making out like bandits.

[NickStone]

@greygeek: wouldn't it be cheaper to install a stair-lift for your (long suffering) wife?

[woodsmoke]

seek you first the recently doubled down of the detested of the leftys........rightys........homeland security clause ......

"harm to infrastructure"...

I can only RANDOMLY......... log on to SOMA.fm..........at my MICROSOFTINBEDWITHTHENOWDEMOCRATSSOONTOBEREPUBICAN S..........politically correct

BOUGHT THE COMMERCIAL SERVICES FOSS app

and fu@#$%^ buried it..............

I DETEST PREDATORY COMPANIES........

APPLE.........enabled...........thousands of free internet stations.........and said........

hey......you fu@#$%^ idiots..........here is some "free stuff" after you "pay us".

GEEEEEZE LUEEZE...................give me a break!!

woodtiredofitsmoke

[GreyGeek]

@greygeek: wouldn't it be cheaper to install a stair-lift for your (long suffering) wife?

We rent. Besides, a lift doesn't alleviate the 22mmHg of back pressure created by the malfunctioning Mitral valve which is damaging her tricuspid valve, even if she doesn't lift a finger.

[GreyGeek]

Humana put her surgeon's request for two CT scans under review. From what I've read about their past use of their review process it appears to be a delay tactic, hoping the doctor will give up asking and So Humana can save their profits at the possible loss of my wife's life. Rather than moving to Humana's headquarters last year their CEO was given the perk of free commutes, which dinged company profits 1/3rd of a million dollars, in addition to his nearly $3 million in compensation. Poor guy. He is being paid $5 million less than the previous CEO.